Download Relative and absolute chronology

Relative and absolute chronology
I
f, as optimists insist, every challenge is an opportunity,
then the corollary is surely that when one spies no
opportunity and sets about creating one’s own, it
has to be a challenge. Ask Andrew Batt-Rawden and
Alex Pozniak, who gazed at the bleak landscape of
opportunities for young composers to have their work
performed, and decided to make their own.
The result, Chronology Arts, has created scores (if
you’ll pardon me) of performance openings in Sydney
for aspiring artists engaged in the heady possibilities of
new music.
“It’s also promoting the composers,” says 24-year-old
Batt-Rawden, “getting them an audience, and starting their
careers in a way that hasn’t been happening previously.”
Established chamber groups and orchestras shy away
from new work, especially by unknown composers. To be
fair, these composers may be still gaining complete control
over their art, but, just as a play has to be performed to
really exist, so a score has to be heard.
The pair buzzes with infectious enthusiasm for
Chronology, which was launched in 2007, and aims to
present new material that is sufficiently innovative to not
only represent contemporary developments, but to point
to the future. Another intention is to foster collaborations
with art forms such as film and dance, which can lead to
further work for composers.
Batt-Rawden grew up in Belrose, learning oboe. “By
the time I was 16 I figured out I was much more interested
in the creation of music rather than the performance of it,”
he says. He studied composition at the Conservatorium
from 2003 to 2006, emerging with a Bachelor of Music
(Honours), and meanwhile developing a taste for playing
producer as well as composer. Such is his commitment
to being Chronology’s managing director that he is
completing a Masters in Management at UTS.
Two years older, Pozniak (Chronology’s artistic director)
was raised on Sydney’s northern beaches, studied piano,
and completed a combined Arts/Music degree at the
University between 2000 and 2004.
“The English that I was majoring in, the art history,
philosophy and bits of psychology were all adding to
my creative thinking,” he says. He then completed an
Honours year in composition under the supervision of
Matthew Hindson, and subsequently two years of a
music
How two musicians are brightening the bleak landscape of new music. John Shand reports
L to R:
Alex Pozniak, Zubin
Kanga and Andrew
Batt-Rawden.
Photo: Ted Sealey
Masters, emerging with a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of
Music, First Class Honours, the University Medal and, at
the time of writing, was awaiting the result of his Masters
in Composition. Meanwhile he teaches composition both
at the Conservatorium high school and with Hindson at
the University.
The enthusiasm for Chronology is shared by both
audiences and artists such as Zubin Kanga, a young
pianist who is turning ears both here and in Britain with
his dashing virtuosity and poised artistry. A Chronologypresented Kanga recital in July gave a snapshot of
the vitality, diversity and surprise of the new-music
scene. Like jazz, this music tends to remain beneath
the radar of most people, despite being where the
genuinely questing art is happening, and while so much
predictable, pedestrian sludge fills our concert halls,
theatres and cinemas.
Kanga, who has known Pozniak since high school,
believes the collaborative relationship between composer
and performer is vital, and should be fostered more,
pointing to the Conservatorium in this regard. He, too,
grew up on the northern beaches, and began piano at age
five, but did not fully commit to becoming a professional
musician until he was undertaking a combined Arts/
Science degree at Sydney.
He is grateful that the interdisciplinary approach
in the Music Department (now the Arts Music Unit)
embraced composition, performing, musicology and
ethnomusicology.
“The fact we studied all these things gave us a broader
musical education and a more rigorous intellectual
education compared to what you would get at most
conservatoires in the world,” he says.
Further broadening that education were units of
engineering, computer science and mathematics, as well
as a philosophy major. Kanga emerged with a Bachelor of
Science and a Bachelor of Arts with First Class Honours in
Music, and the University Medal.
“It’s good to have support for performers who are at
the same level as the composers they are advocating,”
says Kanga of Chronology Arts, which now mounts five
concerts a year, and is happy to hear from would-be
participants. Just make sure you’re thinking more than a
year ahead. SAM
SAM Summer 09/10 31